As
many legal battles were
fought in the Paszkowski
family's case since October
4, 1989, words of thanks
should go to all the lawyers
who attempted to keep him
in the country and out of
trouble with the law while
fighting the formidable
official legal machine working
against him. Barbara Jackman,
Tita DeRousseau, Brian Beresh
and, for the past two years,
Bradley Willis, helped guide
Paszkowski through the maze
of Canadian Immigration
laws and regulations and
defended him, in some instances
beyond the call of what
is normally required of
a legal counsel. Suzie Verge,
of Brad Willis' law office,
Cleall Pahl Knaak and Veylan,
deserves thanks for facilitating
the flow of paper and information
between all parties involved.

Larry
Hoffman, literary agent
extraordinaire, merits gratitude
for his help in expeditiously
finding Prentice-Hall, a
publisher willing to take
a chance on this undertaking.
My editor at Prentice-Hall,
Kelly Dickson, was most
helpful in improving the
book.

Many
Edmontonians followed this
case through the media.
Many know the Paszkowski
family and helped them in
various ways. Ryszard Fryga
and his wife, Teresa, offered
practical help, comfort
and support to the Paszkowski
family and were always there
in moments of crisis and
joy: taking care of Ela
while Ryszard was imprisoned;
making the arrangements
for their wedding; being
there for the birth of their
second son, Kevin, while
his father was out of the
country; being there for
them when Ryszard was arrested
at Woolco, to mention only
a few.

Grateful
thanks also go to Janina
Muszynski, Professor Alexander
Matejko, Mike Pawlus, Mark
VanPeteghan and many others
who believed in the human
gesture of extending a helping
hand to people in need.

Comments,
criticism and many constructive
suggestions designed to
improve the flow of the
material in this work and
to keep the interest high,
came from: Nancy Beauchesne;
Laura Kilgour; Elizabeth
Kwasniewski; Sara Mohsin;
Catherine Beaudry; and Cecil
Cross. Your assistance in
improving the manuscript
is greatly appreciated.

Clearly,
this book would not have
been feasible at all without
the tireless work of Danuta
Tardif and Cynthia Guibord.
Danuta translated and edited
Ryszard Paszkowski's 350
pages of hand-written notes;
researched all required
background information and
searched thousands of pages
of documents in order to
pinpoint the few dozen that
were actually useful. Cynthia
Guibord supervised the flow
of information on Paszkowski's
case and co-ordinated our
collective effort of putting
the whole thing together.
She tirelessly, without
complaint typed and retyped
our many drafts before it
was up to her professional
standards.

Finally,
sincere gratitude to my
wife, Laura, and our children
Margot, Eileen, David and
Hilary, Louis-Paul Tardif,
and Conrad Guibord for their
patience and understanding
of the many hours required
to assemble this work, which
is really a four person
(with Ryszard) enterprise,
at the expense of family
time.